Despite living only three hours away, I haven’t been on a proper trip to Lake Tahoe in around twenty years. I took care of that this past weekend, spending three days up at the lake on this year’s summer vacation. Below are my favorite photos from the trip, which I took using the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100.

Donner Lake

Train in Truckee, en route to Chicago

Panorama of the beach at the Hyatt Lake Tahoe

Nearby mountain and moon

Almost sunset

The lake, post sunset

Another day at the beach

I’m on a boat! Sea kayaking is hard work!

Somewhere at sea

Panorama of Lake Tahoe from Mt. Rose

Beautiful Tahoe Meadows

Panorama of Tahoe Meadows off of Mt. Rose Highway

Little creek through the meadow

Looking toward Reno from Mt. Rose

Mouth of the Truckee river

Lake Tahoe near the mouth of the Truckee River

The gates at the mouth of the Truckee River. There are always fish swimming around down there.

Emerald Bay

Fannette Island in Emerald Bay

Eagle Falls

Vikingsholm

More Vikingsholm

Local flora and fauna

Chimney Beach

The water is just amazingly clear in Tahoe

Paradise Cove (naked old guy alert)

Artsy shot of the day

Heavenly gondola. $34 for a ride up in the summer! Expensive but worth it!

Looking back toward the lake is a little unnerving

Gondolas approaching the observation deck

View from the observation deck near the top of the gondola (~9100 ft)

Panorama of the lake

So this is what a ski run looks like in the summer. Talk about clear-cutting!

I got the chance to go to one of the charity Cars Land / Buena Vista Street previews that was offered to Disneyland annual pass holders. I went for the $75 package, which included all-day access to Buena Vista Street, 5 hours in Cars Land, and a private showing of World of Color.

It feels like California Adventure has finally come of age. The new entrance is understated but classy, as opposed to the somewhat tacky original entrance. The style of Buena Vista Street reminds me a lot of the Studios theme park in Florida, which is okay by me. The only thing that seemed out of place were all the generic Starbucks cups being sold at the new FF&P cafe — hopefully themed cups will arrive soon.

Cars Land looks fantastic. You can tell that no expense was spared. The big E-ticket attraction, Radiator Springs Racers, is a fun ride for the whole family. I wouldn’t call it a thrill ride, but it’s certainly fun — especially the racing aspect. The technology and animatronics are impressive, as well. Like its predecessor, Test Track, RSR seems prone to breakdowns — it went down at least three times in about 3 hours. Hopefully it’ll get more reliable in time. Oh and a little tip — the single rider line moves quickly!

I didn’t try the other two attractions: Luigi’s Flying Tires and Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree. The former looked pretty boring and I wasn’t about to wait in line for it. Mater’s looked a bit more exciting but I chose to take photos and ride RSR a few more times instead.

The entrance to the “new” California Adventure

New street cars near the park entrance

Side view

Inside the street car

This is the first souvenir shop that you’ll find after entering the park